Iran says is certain no missile hit Ukrainian plane before crash

Iran’s top aviation official says the results of a probe into the crash of a Ukrainian passenger ‎plane in Tehran will show what has happened, but Iran is certain no missile hit the aircraft.‎

News ID: 448462

Date: 10 January 2020 - 18:41

RNA – The remarks were made by Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran’s Aviation Organization, ‎during a press conference held in Tehran Friday after countries with a stake in crisis-hit ‎Boeing claimed that the airliner had probably been brought down by a missile, according to ‎Press TV. ‎

The Iranian official said no comment can be made about the cause of the plane crash, which ‎killed all the 176 on board on Wednesday morning, and the reason will be determined after ‎opening the black box.‎

‎“However, we can state it with certainty that no missile has hit this airplane. The plane was ‎flying for over 1.5 minutes while it was on fire, and the crash site shows the pilot had ‎decided to return [to the airport],” he noted.‎

Abedzadeh said the Islamic Republic can download the black box data under normal ‎circumstances, but since the box has been damaged, it will be difficult to directly extract ‎information from the system.‎

‎“We need special software and hardware which are available in our country, but if we fail to ‎extract the data due to the damages of the black box, we will get help from other ‎countries,” he noted.‎

At the same press conference, Hassan Rezaeifar, the head of the Aviation Organization’s ‎commission for plane crash probes, said Ukraine, France, Canada, and Russia have all ‎expressed their readiness to assist Iran with the data extraction. ‎

Tehran, he said, will send the black box to one of these countries if it fails to retrieve the ‎data. ‎

Iran has already urged all parties involved, including Boeing, to contribute to the probe into ‎the crash.‎

‎“According to international regulations, representatives from the civil aviation agency of the ‎country where the crash has taken place, the civil aviation agency of the country which has ‎issued the airworthiness certificate (Ukraine), the owner of the airliner (Ukraine International ‎Airlines), the aircraft manufacturer (Boeing Co.), and the jet engine manufacturer (CFM ‎International) can participate in the investigation process," Iranian government spokesman ‎Ali Rabiei said Friday.‎

‎"A delegate from Ukraine is already in Iran. We call upon Boeing Co. to dispatch its own ‎representative to participate in the process of reading the black box data,” he said.‎

Rabiei said Iran also welcomes the participation of all the countries which have lost their ‎nationals in the mishap. ‎

The spokesman roundly dismissed the Pentagon’s allegations that missiles downed the ‎Ukrainian jet. “No one will assume responsibility for such a big lie once it is known that the ‎claim is fraudulent,” he said. ‎

‎“It is unfortunate that the psychological operation of the US government, and those ‎supporting it knowingly and unknowingly, are adding insult to the injury of the bereaved ‎families and victimizing them for certain goals by propagating such fallacies,” he added.‎

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